Operation: Trick-Or-Scream
by PB7
Summary: It's Halloween and the penguins have to get ready in time for the children of Central Park! I meant to publish this yesterday, but forgot due to schoolwork. So, Happy Belated Halloween! I hope everyone (who celebrates it) had fun and got lots of candy! I hope you enjoy!


_Tick—Tock—Tick—Tock—Tick—Tock—_

The clock read 2027 hours. Just three hours and thirty-three minutes until October 31st, AKA Halloween. The zoo was scheduled to be open for only half a day tomorrow. Children would come in little ghost, ghoul, and goblin costumes, poised to scare the living daylights out of the passerby's.

"All right, boys. What did we talk about?" Skipper asked his team.

"Um," Private began, but Skipper cut him off.

"Remember, Private, I don't like it when you start your sentences with 'um'," he told him.

"Aye. Sorry, Skipper," Private replied.

"'s all right. Stay frosty. Now back to my question."

"Just be ourselves. Don't get distracted by anything we may see," Kowalski answered.

"Including?"

Kowalski took a breath. "Including candy," he said gloomily.

"Exactamundo. _Right_, Rico?" Skipper asked giving him a look.

"Uh-huh," Rico replied sadly.

"Remember, the sugary stuff goes straight to the brain! Makes us hallucinate. Remember what happened with Private and the Skorca," Skipper reminded to emphasize his point.

"That wasn't a sugar dream!" Private protested.

"I know. But it was hard for us to believe you when we found those winkie wrappers. Remember?" Skipper pointed out.

"Aye, sir," Private said remembering how hard he'd tried to convince them that he wasn't dreaming.

"Now I know you all love your sweet stuff. But I need this unit sharp! You all remember what happened to Manfredi and Johnson on Halloween of '03."

"Right. What a _frightening_ way to go," Kowalski said shuddering at the memory.

"Exactly. Now let's get some shuteye. Early wake up tomorrow. Zoo opens at exactly 0900. And we're gonna be ready for them. Right, boys?"

"Aye, sir!" the three of them resounded simultaneously. The lights went out and the four of them hit the sack.

_Tick—Tock—Tick—Tock—Tick—Tock—Tick—Tock—_

Private couldn't sleep. He kept speculating about what tomorrow would bring. He always disliked Halloween. The children all dressed up in those horrid costumes sickened him. He remembered a couple of Halloween's ago when a kid—for _some_ reason—dressed up like a badger. Scared the feathers right off his tail end until the kid took the mask off. He had nightmares for days. The only good memories he had of Halloween was when he got to eat the candy, but Skipper was getting stricter on how much the team could eat.

He quietly sat up on the side of his bunk and looked at the clock, which read 2347 hours. Thirteen minutes until Halloween. He decided to get some milk, in hopes of putting himself to sleep. Half asleep, he pulled himself from his bunk, he migrated to the fridge, filled a cup full of milk, and drank gratefully. Washing the cup out and reaching into the cupboard to return it, something small, yellow, and square caught his eye in the back of the shelf. He set the cup down out of the way and pulled it out.

It was a small 6-pack of Peanut Butter Winkies. He smiled to himself, and looked at the others, who were sleeping peacefully.

_I'm sure I could eat just one Peanut Butter Winkie,_ he thought to himself. He reached inside and pulled out a winkie. He started to open it when he remembered what happened the last time he was only going to eat one winkie. He ended up eating the entire box uncontrollably. If he ate it now he probably wouldn't be able to sleep anyway; it would defeat the purpose of him even getting the milk. Sighing quietly, he replaced the winkie back in the box and put the box back in the cupboard. He looked at the clock again.

_Ten—Nine—Eight—Seven—Six—Five—Four—Three—Two—One._ 0000 hours. Halloween had arrived.

— § —

"Rise and shine—shine and rise, boys!" Skipper resounded to his men at promptly 0730 hours. Kowalski and Rico hopped down from their bunks with Private sluggishly tailing behind.

"_Wake-y,_ wake-y, Private!" Skipper said in the young cadet's face.

Private rubbed his eyes.

"Aye. Sorry, Skipper. I didn't get much sleep last night," he said with a yawn.

"'s nothing a good swim won't cure! Come on! We could use the exercise," Skipper responded. The team followed Skipper out and Rico examined his stomach in response to Skipper's remark.

As it was every October 31st, the zoo looked as if Halloween threw up all over it. There were decorations everywhere. Orange and black ribbons hung loosely around every habitat, paper ghosts hung from signs and the zoo gates, and stickers could be seen on the inside of the Zoovenir Shop of spiders, witch hats, and the words, '_Happy Halloween'_. A cool coming-of-winter breeze flowed softly, causing the trees to dance eerily.

Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico jumped into the water and swam about, fighting through the cold chill it bared.

"Come on, Private! It'll wake you right up!" Skipper encouraged.

"But it's cold!" Private complained.

"Oh, come on, you nancy-cat! What if you were stranded in the icy cold Antarctic and the only way to save one of your penguin brothers was to jump into the icy depths of the Pacific! You wouldn't chicken out then, would you?" Skipper inquired.

"No, I suppose not," Private replied taking a hasty step toward the pond.

Skipper back-paddled past him.

"Then come on! That's an order!"

Private took a deep breath and jumped in, automatically feeling the cold pinch of the water.

"Ah! It's cold!" Private cried, shivering.

"You're fine! Just move around some! You'll get used to it!" Kowalski encouraged. Private—still shivering from the cold—slowly paddled forward.

"Atta boy, Private!" Skipper called.

"Hello, slap-happy penguins!" Julien called hopping atop the boundaries of the penguin habitat.

"Ringtail! What do you want?!" Skipper asked rolling his eyes irritably.

"I am here to be tricking-or-treating! Mostly treating," Julien replied rubbing his paws together.

"Yay, tricking and treating!" Mort called happily hopping up and down with his arms in the air.

"Ringtail, I love bursting your bubble. The candy we have is for the children of Central Park later on tonight. _Not _for you," Skipper insisted with an agitated crossing of his flippers.

"Okay, fine. I'll just do more tricking until then," Julien muttered.

"Ringtail, if you do _anything _to the other zoo animals _or _the humans, we're gonna have a problem," Skipper threatened.

"Pft! You don't scare me, smelly water bird! Come, Maurice! Let us go somewhere where we will not be insulted by the common folk!" Julien said walking past his 'subjects'. Maurice and Mort followed.

"Good luck with _that_," Skipper muttered.

"Um, Skipper, I'm awake now. Can I get out?" a still-shivering Private asked.

Skipper sighed.

"Fine. Zoo's gonna open in an hour, anyway. Guess we better make sure everything's ready to roll. Move out, team!"

The four of them started in the park to see how the children were doing to get ready for Halloween.

"Good morning, Momma Duck! Are the children excited for Halloween?" Kowalski asked.

"Excited? I haven't heard the end of it!" Momma Duck replied. Eggy ran past dressed up like a ghost, chasing his siblings around.

"I will eat your soul!" he exclaimed. The other ducklings screamed as they fled.

"Eggy! Stop it! You're scaring them!" Private ordered picking Eggy up. The other ducklings stopped and turned to Private.

"Scaring? We were just playing! We're not scared of nothin'!"

"Well, Ramona, I don't think you should be playing something so sinister, even if you're not scared," Private argued.

"I'm Bradley! That's Ramona!" Bradley exclaimed pointing to the duckling that had her wings crossed.

"Right," Private said setting Eggy down.

"Come on, Private! Have a little fun!" Samuel exclaimed.

"_No _can do, young duckling. We are here on official business," Skipper explained.

"Excuse me, Mister Pen-gu-in! You need to be learning how to have the fun!" Eggy said removing the handkerchief from over his head.

"Sorry, little Eggy. Maybe some other time."

"Are you at least going to wear costumes tonight?" Ramona asked hopefully.

"Ha! Costumes?! We are military personnel. We don't do costumes," Skipper explained.

"But it's Halloween! _Please_! You must wear _some _kind of costume!" the ducklings begged.

"Fine. We'll go as penguins," Skipper said.

The ducklings stared flatly.

"You _are _penguins," Samuel said crossing his wings.

"Oh, look at that, we are. Guess we don't have to make costumes for it then," Skipper said tauntingly.

"Oh, come on! You need to be letting loose! Can't you have a little fun for _one _night?" Eggy taunted.

Skipper sighed and looked at his men, who shrugged in response.

"Fine. But we're _not _wearing anything too showy," Skipper instructed.

"I know just the thing," Eggy replied slyly.

— § —

"No, no, no, no, and _no_! This is _not _what I had in mind!" Skipper exclaimed.

"Oh, suck it up! You look great!" Ramona encouraged.

"I am not, repeat not—"

"Not."

Skipper shot a look at Julien, who had joined them about half an hour ago.

"I didn't mean _you _repeat—Ugh, never mind. I am _not _going to wear this tin can!"

"It's called _armor_. You're supposed to be a knight!" Bradley explained. "Come on out, Kowalski!"

"No!" Kowalski called from in the HQ.

"Oh, come out, you nancy-cat. You made _me _come out," Skipper commanded.

"Gah … Fine," A moment later, Kowalski emerged from the HQ, and the lemurs immediately burst into laughter. Skipper was not amused.

"See? We can't go out looking like this!" he said gesturing to Kowalski in his cat costume, whiskers included.

"But you guys look so cute!" Momma Duck said. "At least you're not wearing something that will scare the little ones."

"True. But I look like a can of soup!" Skipper exclaimed.

Kowalski crossed his flippers.

"At least _you _don't look like you should be looking for a litter box," he muttered.

"Remind me how I got talked into trying this one again?" Skipper asked.

"Oh, silly pen-gu-in! You remember! I called you a chicken cake and you wanted to prove otherwise! Now I am laughing in triumph! Ha-ha!" Julien exclaimed.

"That was a rhetorical question," Skipper muttered angrily rubbing his temples. Finally, Private popped out.

"How do I look?" he asked happily admiring his butterfly costume.

"Private! You're _comfortable _in that thing?" Skipper asked disapprovingly.

"Well, it _is _a bit itchy. But don't you just love the sparkles?" he said moving back and forth, letting the light catch the wings.

Skipper slapped his palm to his forehead.

"All right, Rico. Your turn," he said without looking up.

"Ah-ah!" Rico's voice replied.

"Rico! Front and center! That's an order!"

Rico replied with a string of gibberish that only his team could comprehend.

"Yes, Rico. We came out and so can you," Skipper argued.

Another string of gobbledygook.

"So? How do you think we feel?!"

Meanwhile, Julien whispered to Maurice, "Did you catch any of that?"

"Not a word," Maurice muttered back.

"Rico! Out—now!" Skipper ordered sternly.

With a frustrated grunt, Rico slowly emerged from the HQ and crossed his flippers, obviously not amused with his flower costume.

Once again, the lemurs burst into laughter. Mort actually fell into the penguins' pond. Maurice pulled himself together first.

"I'm sorry, guys! Phew! I just can't fathom how ridiculous you guys look!" he said wiping away a tear.

Julien was still laughing and his eyes were beginning to water.

"And just what are you three going as, lemur?" Skipper asked.

"Well, I was thinking as going as the greatest one that has ever lived—_Me_," Julien answered, then looked at Rico again, which caused him to nearly fall over laughing.

Aggravated with Julien's guffaw directed at the penguins' humility, Rico ripped the petals from around his neck, hacked up a baseball bat, and began chasing Julien around.

"Get him away from me!" he cried with a terrified scream as he fleed.

Skipper sighed.

"Eggy, how about this instead? We'll find costumes to _our _liking to wear tonight. I mean, they'll still be costumes. Just not as—You know—Nancy-cat-ish," he suggested.

Eggy sighed.

"I guess that's okay," Eggy agreed reluctantly.

"Great. Now, you all better run along home. The zoo opens in T minus seventeen minutes," Skipper informed them.

Momma Duck began leading her ducklings to the exit.

"Come along, kids."

"All right, let's get out of these costumes," Skipper said.

Julien came bounding back past the habitat screaming like a newborn baby.

"Save the king! _Save the king_!" he cried.

"Rico! Come on! The zoo's about to open!" Skipper called.

Rico stopped in his tracks and Julien hopped over the wall of his habitat with Maurice following behind. Rico re-swallowed the baseball bat, still smoldering with anger.

"Wait a minute, where's Sad Eyes?" Skipper asked.

"I make splashies!" Mort called from their pond. Skipper pulled him out and pushed him along.

"Go home, Sad Eyes!"

"Okay! _Feet_!" Mort cried happily as he lept over the wall.

Moments later you could hear Julien yelling, "Not the feet!" and could see Mort flying down to the bottom of the lemur habitat crying, "I can fly!"

— § —

The zoo had closed. It was now 1534 hours and Alice had just finished locking up. The zoosters day was filled with princesses, witches, ghosts, goblins, fairies, and much more. At 1800 hours, the animals were scheduled to be ready for the children of Central Park to come trick-or-treating for themselves. So the penguins only had about two and a half hours to find suitable costumes to wear.

"All right, boys. So what are we gonna do about this costume situation?" Skipper asked.

"We could dress up to be things we enjoy to make the costumes more tolerable to wear," Kowalski suggested.

"Kaboom! _Kaboom_! A-ha-ha!" Rico blurted immediately.

Skipper smiled.

"I like where your head is at soldier."

Rico regurgitated a stick of dynamite.

"Woo-hoo!"

"Not you! Kowalski! Put that out, Rico!" Skipper ordered. Rico disappointedly pinched out the fuse and swallowed the dynamite.

"So what are we going to wear, Skipper?" Private asked.

"Well, we'll just wear what we feel comfortable in. Disperse and set to work," Skipper commanded.

An hour and a half later, the penguins returned to HQ.

"So what do we have, boys?" Skipper asked.

"I'm an atom! You like?" Kowalski asked happily.

"Uh … Sure. I guess," Skipper replied eyeing his costume. "Rico, you're up."

Rico slipped on a red, cylinder-shaped costume and put a plunger on his head. "Kaboom!"

"_Right_," Skipper said slowly. "Private! Whatcha got?"

"Well, Skipper, I haven't made up my mind yet," Private informed him.

"Private! We only have an hour left! How have you not made up your mind yet?"

"Well, there's just so many things to choose from! And I don't know what I'll be comfortable in!" Private protested.

Skipper sighed.

"All right. I'm giving you 45 minutes. Have something ready by then."

"Aye, sir," Private replied. He saluted and left the HQ.

— § —

"Hm. I could be a unicorn—Nah, too much work. It'll take too long. A flower? No, too poofy."

Private contemplated almost every idea he could think of. He wasn't sure what he wanted to be tonight and now had only half an hour to come up with an idea.

"I will drink your blood!"

"Gah!" Private jumped at the voice behind him, the relaxed when he saw that it was Julien. He had fake fangs in his mouth and a cape around his neck. "Julien! You scared me!"

"_That _was the _idea_! I got you, didn't I?" Julien replied with a laugh.

"Julien! I am trying to concentrate!" Private snapped.

"I know, it is so hard to think when you are basking in the king's awesomeness. What do you think of my handsome vampire costume?" he asked holding the cape in front of his face, just under his eyes. Though, he'd pronounced the word 'vampire', 'vam_peer_'.

"Uh, it's wonderful, Julien. I really must be going though."

"Look at me!" Mort cried trotting up in his little costume. Who wouldn't have guessed that he'd dress up as King Julien's foot?

"Mort! You're so annoying! You make a good foot, though," Julien said.

"Yay!" Mort replied happily.

"Mort, why are you yaying?" Julien asked.

"King Julien loves me!" Mort answered.

"Ughness! Maurice! Deal with the annoyance! Now, as I was saying, I—hey, where did the penguin go?"

While Julien was dealing with Mort, Private had snuck off to think about what he was going to dress up as.

"_Private …_"a voice moaned nearby.

"Wh-Who's there?" Private asked shakily.

"_Private …_"the voice repeated.

"C-C-Come out! Show yourself!"

"_If you say so …_"

All of the sudden, a white figure with a horrid face drawn on it flew from the sky and swooped over Private's head. Private screamed in terror and ran off in the direction of the penguin habitat.

— § —

Private tumbled through the hatch trying to catch his breath.

"Private! What's wrong?" Skipper asked with wide eyes.

"Skipper! Something's after me!" he cried. The young cadet cowered behind his leader.

"Private, nothing's after you! What did you see?"

"I was walking in between the chimp and otter habitat and something came from the sky! It was white and it had a horrid face!" Private explained covering his head with his flippers.

"Calm down! It was probably nothing!" Kowalski said gently grasping his shoulder.

"No! It was real! And it knew my name!"

"Knew your name? Looks like we have an investigation afoot, team. You stay here, Private. We'll go see who your attacker is," Skipper commanded.

"Okay. Be careful," Private told them.

"Roll out, men!" Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico leaped through the hatch, Skipper on point.

Private sat down in his bunk, thinking about what he saw. He shivered at the thought. Then he realized that he was hungry. He hadn't eaten much that morning. He got to his feet and went to the fridge to look for something to eat.

"Hm," Private murmured as he contemplated what he wanted. On the top shelf, the milk caught his eye and he remembered his winkie discovery last night. He closed the fridge and opened the cabinet.

"Yummy!"

He opened up the box of winkies and unwrapped one of them, then popped it into his mouth.

"Mm-mm," he hummed happily. Then an idea occurred to him.

— § —

"Any trace?" Skipper asked Kowalski and Rico as they searched the area where Private said he was assaulted.

"Nothing," Kowalski told him.

"Nada," Rico reported.

All of the sudden, a scream was heard from Marlene's place.

"Roll out, team!" Skipper commanded.

The penguins leapt into Marlene's habitat.

"Marlene? Are you okay?" Skipper asked.

Marlene came running out of her cave, trying to catch her breath.

"Skipper! You won't believe it! I was getting my costume ready when I heard my name! Then something came swooping down over my head!"

"Hm, that's exactly what happened to the private. Disperse and investigate, boys!" Skipper commanded. The team entered Marlene's cave and carefully examined it for clues.

"Did you find anything?" Marlene asked.

"Negatory. Culprit's gone without a trace," Skipper concluded. Once again a scream was heard from outside, this time from Burt's. "Oh, not again!" Skipper exclaimed as they leapt into action.

"Let me guess, Big Gray, you heard your name and something came swooping out of the sky?" Skipper predicted.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Burt confirmed.

"Lucky guess. Look for clues, boys."

"There's nothing, Skipper!" Kowalski reported.

"Nada!" Rico exclaimed.

"Blast! Who is causing all of this?" Skipper asked rubbing his chin. Then something caught his eye. "Wait a minute," he thought aloud, picking up a small yellow feather that was about to blow away in the wind. "I think I know exactly what's going on here, boys."

Skipper suspicions were confirmed. After scanning the perimeter, they found Eggy, Ramona, Samuel, and Bradley getting ready to scare the gorillas.

"All right, ready to go, Samuel?" Eggy asked.

Samuel nodded.

"This is great! Three zip and it's not even dark yet! Did you see their faces?"

"Priceless!" Ramona replied.

The four of them were getting ready to take flight in a kite that was covered with a white sheet with the horrid face drawn on it.

"Having fun, are we?"

The sound of Skipper's voice caused the ducklings to jump.

"Oh. Hi, Mister Skipper Penguin," Samuel said slowly. The ducklings looked down guiltily, knowing they were caught.

"Hi. And what do we have to say for ourselves?"

"I'm sorry," the said simultaneously.

"Oh, you don't have to apologize to me. It's the animals you've terrorized that you need to apologize to," Skipper told them.

"Yes, sir," they once again said simultaneously.

After apologizing to Marlene and Burt, the penguins led the ducklings to their habitat to apologize to Private.

"Private? Where are you, Private?" Skipper called down into the hatch.

"I'll be up in a minute!" Private's voice replied. A moment later Private emerged from the HQ. "So, what do you think?"

The penguins and ducklings looked him up and down for a moment. Then Skipper said, "I like it. And just in time, too. It's time for the children to come. After the ducklings have told you something."

The ducklings said their apologies.

"For what then?" Private asked.

"They're the ones who scared you, and they'd have gotten away with it, too, if we hadn't caught them," Skipper said getting a low five from Kowalski and Rico. "We best get ready for the children."

— § —

After the penguins got into their costumes, they prepared themselves for the children.

"Are you sure you're not too hot in there, Private?" Kowalski asked the cadet.

"Nah, I'm fine," Private assured him.

"If you say so," Kowalski said doubtedly.

Then the lemurs came running up to their spot of the park.

"Hello, smelly flightless water-birds! Rejoice! Your king has arrived," Julien said smugly.

"Ringtail! What are you doing here?" Skipper asked angrily.

"I just came to see what my royal subjects are to be doing!" Julien replied.

"What do you _think _we're doing? We're handing out candy—"

"Ooh! I am demanding that I, the king, shall have candy."

"Negatory, Ringtail. We're handing out candy to the children. What are you supposed to be anyway? A superhero snake?"

"No! I am a vampire!" Julien made his—what he liked to call it—'_handsome vampire mopey face' _and said, "Bleh!"

Skipper rolled his eyes.

"Ringtail, we're busy."

"Not too busy for the king!" Julien insisted.

"And his foot!" a happy Mort cried from inside his foot costume.

"Ringtail, leave us alone so we can hand out the rest of the candy before midnight!" Skipper said taking upon noticing how late it was getting.

"Uh, your majesty? I believe there are other places we can get candy," Maurice pointed out. He was dressed in a simple costume—a tie and a briefcase to make himself look like a lawyer—though, that was only just his excuse to Julien so he wouldn't have to wear anything too dressy.

"Fine. Bleh!" Julien said to the penguins before he and the lemurs left.

A possum family came up to them next, and Skipper adjusted the hat to his captain costume.

"Oh, how cute! That's a wonderful costume Private," the mother said.

"Thanks! I made it in no time," Private replied, very content with his choice of attire—a winkie costume.


End file.
